Cocky...

Richer...

Murky...

If the intentional events of the past year were scripted as a Bond film, the critics would decide that 007 had stretched credibility too far.

An ex-Russian spy poisoned in a quiet English cathedral town; a US government outflanked by North Korea on nuclear weapons; a Saudi critic murdered by Saudi officials in an Istanbul consulate.

But one recent story goes even further into international thriller territory. It's a chilling tale that has received a fraction of the coverage granted to any of these other big 2018 stories: the disappearance of Meng Hongwei.

Meng was the president of the International Criminal Police Organization, known as Interpol, the planet's cross-border law enforcement cooperation body. In late September, he quietly disappeared in China. There hasn't been much of a public fuss. As the age of liberal values ebbs away, have global norms on human rights been so weakened that even international policemen are no longer safe from state-sponsored kidnap?

Whatever the messy nature of internal Chinese politics, it remains astonishing that the president of the world's law-keeping organization disappear in a manner completely in breach of any concept of natural law. [By Kate Maltby]

Dropped...

The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7 percent, a 49-month low. Unemployment rates dropped sharply for African-Americans, Asian-Americans and workers with only a high school diploma or less. Rates for other major groups of workers stayed unchanged.

Average hourly earnings grew 3.1 percent since last year, the same pace as last month and the fastest rate of wage growth since 2009. Earning Average hourly earnings for Americans are now at $27.35 an hour.

After the tepid pace of wage growth earlier in the recovery, the higher wage figure is welcome news for workers, even as it causes some economists to worry about inflation.

Workers without high school degrees haven't had the easiest time finding a job. But now, the strong labor market is lifting workers who never earned their high school or GED diploma, providing them with the best chances of scoring a job in at least a decade.

With core inflation below 2 percent, wages would have to increase a lot to have any effect on inflation. Even a big wage jump isn't really going to affect inflation that much.

Time...

Studies actually prove that when you smile, you actually begin to feel happier. For one thing, others will usually smile at you. You’ll be seen as a kinder and happier person – and, who knows – you might start to believe it.

Rather than thinking about what might happen to you, think instead of what you can do to make positive things and events happen in your life and in others. 

An idle mind can get into all sorts of trouble and begin to take negative thoughts seriously. Engage in positive activities such as taking a class, visiting friends or family, reading a good book or exercising.

Reach out to others with positive thinking. When you hear another person expressing pessimistic thoughts, share a different perspective with them. It will also help you from turning toward pessimistic thoughts.

Don’t let life pass you by. If you continue with pessimistic thinking, you could wake up one day and realize you’ve lived a miserable life. Every single minute counts and if you spend most of it brooding about what might have been, you’ll have wasted precious time.

Teacher...

Republican Gov. Scott Walker became a conservative icon by breaking the teachers union in Wisconsin. Seven years later, he’s facing the political fight of his life against the state schools superintendent, and lost to Tony Evers, the school teacher.

In-Secure...

We all know those people who present themselves as very secure and brag about themselves. 

People with airs of superiority mask their insecurity by acting superior to others and humiliating them so they can feel better about themselves.

So every time you find yourself with someone who has a superiority problem, be careful. They’re  acting this way due to the horrible situations they’ve had to go through.  Distance yourself....

Anybody who exaggerates their virtues and acts like they’re above others does this because they’re insecure about it. It’s a way to protect themselves, even though all they’re really doing is causing more harm.

Eventually the true self will come through.

Hacking...

Chinese intelligence could have been involved in the data breach that affected 500 million guests who have made reservations with hotels under Marriott's Starwood division, Reuters reported today.

Private investigators involved in a probe into the breach discovered hacking tools, techniques and procedures that were used in earlier cyberattacks that have been linked to Chinese hackers, according to the publication which cited anonymous sources.

These clues suggest Chinese hackers could have orchestrated a campaign with the intention of harvesting data for Beijing's espionage efforts, said the unnamed sources. They also noted that someone else could also have launched the attack because some of the same hacking tools used in the attack were previously made accessible online.

Investigators believe there may have been more than one hacking group inside the guest reservation network for Marriot's Starwood division at the same time. This could make it harder to identify the culprit, as one of the sources noted. It's been four years since the hack was launched in 2014. 

Meng...

U.S. authorities arrested Meng as part of an investigation into whether Huawei violated sanctions on Iran.  Huawei allegedly broke U.S. sanctions last year by selling embargoed American equipment to Iran, Reuters reported in October.

Huawei became the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world in 2017 -- knocking Ericsson out of the top spot. In a 2012 investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Intelligence concluded "the risks associated with Huawei’s and ZTE’s provision of equipment to U.S. critical infrastructure could undermine core U.S. national-security interests." 

Because of alleged security risks to the U.S., Verizon and AT&T stopped selling Huawei smartphones in January, while Best Buy stopped selling Huawei laptops, cellphones and smartwatches.   

The U.S. defense bill, signed by President Donald Trump in August, prohibits the federal government from procuring or obtaining, as well as entering into, extending or renewing a contract with an entity that uses telecommunications equipment or services produced by Huawei. 

Show...